Cruz blasts Dewhurst for skipping forums, offers plane ticket

Ted Cruz’s campaign took another shot at Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst Wednesday and even offered to purchase a plane ticket from Iowa – where Dewhurst has been campaigning with Gov. Rick Perry – for him to attend a scheduled candidate forum near Austin.

Cruz’s campaign said Dewhurst has been absent from 19 candidate forums, including Wednesday’s Williamson County GOP Senate forum, sponsored by the Georgetown and Williamson County Republican Women, which featured Cruz, Tom Leppert, Glen Addison and Lela Pittenger.

Matt Hirsch, Dewhurst’s campaign spokesman, said Dewhurst, as requested by Gov. Perry, was “a featured surrogate at the Iowa caucuses yesterday evening and all of the flights back to Austin this morning were booked at the time the decision was made to go.”

In the post accusing Dewhurst of skipping forums, Cruz’s website said there are “two commercial flights that can take him from Des Moines to Austin, arriving at 10:45 AM on Wednesday — with time to spare before the forum.”

The post went on to say Cruz’s campaign would “gladly offer to in-kind contribute the cost of the airline ticket to allow Dewhurst to attend, if he lacks the financial resources to purchase his own ticket.”

Dewhurst, who has been named the front-runner in the Senate race by most pundits, has the biggest campaign bankroll so far and was reported to have a net worth of more than $200 million last year.

Sue DeVillez, a member of the Georgetown Republican Women, attended the event and said it was “very civil and well-attended.” She said there was only a small mention of Dewhurst’s absence by Cruz and that she was aware he was in Iowa with Perry.

Hirsch said Cruz and other candidates in the race will get their chance to appear with Dewhurst on Jan. 12, at a debate in downtown Austin sponsored by Empower Texans and the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Also scheduled to appear are Addison, Leppert and Craig James.

Cruz supporters started a “Ducking Dewhurst” crusade last year, complete with a website and mascot, in hopes of prodding Dewhurst to appear with the former solicitor general.